IBM Watson Supercomputer May Gain Artificial Intelligence in a Decade

The group overseeing the supercomputer has acquired AI company Cognea

IBM Watson group buys AI maker Cognea

The Watson supercomputer from IBM is one of the best HPC installations in the world, and while it's not part of the Top500 list, it does have the fame of having won the game Jeopardy! against former winners Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings.

The 80 TeraFLOP supercomputer is so famous, in fact, that IBM created an entire sub-company to oversee its activities and developments.

That group has now acquired a company that specializes in the research and development of artificial intelligences: Cognea.

Having already invented a cognitive computing and conversational artificial intelligence platform, Cognea should be able to go to the next level soon.

It already sells virtual assistants with actual simulated personalities. The way things are going, the foundation for a truly alive AI may soon be completed.

There's just the need for enough hardware left, and IBM Watson will satisfy that just fine. Well, more or less.

IBM has bought Cognea because it feels that it's too obvious that today's “talking” smartphones are just knockoffs of the real idea.

“We believe this focus on creating depth of personality, when combined with an understanding of the users’ personalities will create a new level of interaction that is far beyond today’s ‘talking’ smartphones. We welcome to IBM, [Cognea's] co-founders Liesl Capper and John Zakos, and the rest of the Cognea team,” the company explains.